The Irish standard., 1887-08-13
DAvITT'S B0LDEST SPEECH,
Michael Davitt Rouses up the
Wicklow Men With a
Speech Of Fire.
THE FATHER OF THE LEAGUE
Is Anxious to see the Tenant Farmers Give
Every Possible Natural Resistance
to Landlord Thievery.

to Landlord Thievery.
At Coolgreany, OH the 18th inst, a
meeting of the Natiouallsts was held
under the presidency Of Rev. DR.. Dillon.
Michael Davitt was the principal
speaker. Mr.. Davitt, who was received
with cheers again and again renewed,
said: Father Dillon, fellow country
men, [ regret have not been able to
be present at these evictions before to-
day, but that has been owing to my ab.
sence in England and Scotland, where
I have been addressing series of meet.
ings upon coercion and eviction in Ire
land. l could not, if spoke to you for
two hours, exaggerate the depth Of the
sympathy which is felt throughout the
length and breadth of England, Wales
and Scotland for those OF our people
who are being evicled under present
circumstances in Ireland by the legal
lied burglars Of the landlord system.
But wish to tell you this fact in con-
nection with this kindly feeling towards
you on the other side Of the water, that
the sympathy Of the British working
classes for you will be il, proportion to
the manly resistance which you offer
to those who, in the name OF an infam-
Gus law, violate the sacred right Of the
domestic hearthstone. And I may say
don't think the people who have been
eyisted to-day are deserving OF one par
ticie of sympathy from England or any
other part of the civilized world. I con-
fess [ feel-I won't say disgusted-but
certainly very much disappointed, at
the little exhibition of courage that has
been shown by Wexford men to day. I
don't care how you like those senti-
ments, my friends. T. observe that you
are very good cheerers. you can shout a
good deal, you can groan at Captain
Hamilton, and call names at the enaer-
gency men; but when two Of these came
down among thousand or two thou.
sand Of you all you did was to cheer and
cali them names, You will never win
from Euglishmen OF from your own
countrymen in America one particle Of
sympathy SO long as you show no more
courage than that. / must, in justice
to you, say that you have been advised
by people in whose judgment you rely
probably more than in mine. You have
been advised by these gentlemen
not to resist. Well. for my part, I
would rather be marched off tonight to
prison and undergo three months On
the hardest plank bed in ireland for
having shown some resistance to the
legaljZed marauders who have been
here to-day than to go to prison by and
by When The coercion act is passed, aud
get six months for doing nothing. For
my part, will be glad ii hear in a few
months time that good many of the
young men of Coolgreany are sent to
prison under the coercion act, for from
my point of view, they have deserved it
from the splendid passive resistance
they have shown to the emergency our-
glar brigade. Say that when a people,
be they Of Wexford or Mayo, allow
their houses to be broken into without
showing any reslstance-when they
permit the right OF the domestic hearth
stone to be violated, then / will make
up my mind that these are people that
will never fight for the honor or inde-
pendence of their countrymen. "a
voice-We will never fail.) MI. Davitt
No, you will never fail--in talking.
If talking and making speeches and
cheering could prevent the evictions to-
day you would have gained a very easy
victory over your enemies am proud
to have to acknowledge that there has
been something like what call Bodyke
courage shown by a few boys and girls
since these evictions commenced. Now,
l do not want to be misunderstood /
have not asked the people Of Bodyke,
nor did I ask you to-day, to do aLy
thing that will be rash Or suicidal; but
I called on them down there to show
something like rational resistance in
the defence Of their hOmesteads. put
it to you in this way as put it in Eng
land to Englishmen, in defence of the
people of Bodyke. Assuming for argu
ment sake that Brooke, the landlord,
can claim this land as his property. l
don't assume that he has that right,
but if he has, what claim has he to
those cottages, built by the present oc-
cupier or his predecessors in title? He
has no more claim to them than 1 have
to this land that he calls his own. And
when, in addition to gaining posses
sion, he orders his myrmidons to break
in, he is acting the part Of a legalized
burglar, and the people are justified in
resisting that legalized intrusion. In
England and cotland there would be
resistance more determined than the
,barricades Of " ood odford and Body yke|